Any references to methods, apparatus or documents of the prior art are not to be taken as constituting any evidence or admission that they formed, or form part of the common general knowledge.
It has been known to provide rubber floor tiles which interlock at their edges to produce a tiled surface. Alternate floor tiles may have different colors or patterns in order to produce a checkerboard effect.
A number of problems are associated with these prior art interlocking tiling systems. One problem is that it is time consuming to interlock the edges of numerous tiles together. Effort and attention must be brought to bear to precisely locate each tile adjacent its neighbors and interlock the respective edges together. Furthermore, if a checkerboard, or other, pattern is to be created then care must be taken to alternate the differently colored tiles together. If care is not taken then it may become apparent after the tiles have been assembled together that two tiles of the same type have inadvertently been placed adjacent to each other so that the desired pattern is not created. In that case the tiles will have to be dissembled and reassembled so that the error is corrected.
A further problem with the edge interlocking tiling systems of the prior art is that the interlocking between adjacent tiles is sometimes not as good as might be desired so that after some use the tiles may tend to lift away from their neighbors at the edges or otherwise cause distortion of the flooring system.
Another problem with the rubber floor tiles of the prior art is that their shock attenuating properties may be insufficient for preventing injuries due to a person, e.g. a child, falling in some situations. It would be advantageous if a ground cover system were provided that had improved shock attenuating properties to reduce the likelihood of an injury due to a fall.
One approach to providing a resilient shock attenuating ground covering in fall areas, such as playgrounds for children, has been to provide rubber matting. Rubber matting may be comprised of shredded tire material for example. A problem that is associated with the use of this type of impact absorbing surface is that it may lose its structural integrity over time and fray so that the rubber shreds of which it is composed become dispersed.
It is an object of the invention to provide a tiling system which addresses one or more of the above described problems or which is at least a useful commercial alternative to those tiling systems that have hitherto been known.